Cable Service Coming to Dorms

By Eric Richard
Associate News Editor

Students living on campus can expect MIT Cable to offer expanded service by
the second week of classes, incorporating channels from Continental
Cablevision, including the Cable News Network and Music Television.

Anthony Price, marketing manager for Continental Cablevision, plans to
officially announce the new services during the week of Sept. 6, and have
Continental sales representatives on campus between Sept. 13 and 24 to take
orders.

Various packages will be available to students, in addition to the current
MIT Cable programming. The basic package, available to students for
approximately $10 per month, will include news, education, and variety
packages in addition to community programming and educational, municipal,
and community access channels.

The news package is set to include CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN 1, and
C-SPAN 2, while the education package is comprised of the Arts and
Entertainment Network and the Discovery Channel. MTV, ESPN, Nickelodeon,
Turner Network Television, the TBS SuperStation, and the USA Network will
make up the variety package.

Students will also have the option of adding premium channels, like Home
Box Office, Showtime, the SportsChannel, Cinemax, the Movie Channel, and
the New England Sports Network at an additional monthly fee. According to
Price, Continental plans to offer packages including multiple premium
channels at discounted rates.

Subscribers will also be able to order pay-per-view events through
Continental.

Currently MIT Cable is experiencing some temporary outages, according to
Randall W. Winchester, facilities coordinator for Telecommunication
Systems. The outages have been caused by maintenance to install new cables
and amplifiers to make way for the new channels, and "provide more reliable
service" by troubleshooting the current system. Winchester said he
"certainly hopes that service will be available once again by the middle of
next week."

Price expects to notify students of the new services by distributing a
letter through campus mailboxes. He then plans to use a direct mailing to
inform students more generally about cable services and Continental
Cablevision in particular.

Between Sept. 13 and 24, Price expects that Cablevision will have sales
people at scheduled distribution points across campus, with each
distribution point serving specific dormitories.

Although installation normally costs $57, students who sign up during the
initial offering will get installation for $5.

Students will also be able to call Continental directly anytime before Oct.
15 and have the services installed for $20.

Price said that Cablevision currently serves almost 50 percent of the homes
in the Cambridge area and expects that approximately the same proportion of
on campus residence will eventually be receiving cable services.

Price said the MIT community is ideal for this type of expansion. "These
people are now part of the cable generation. They've grown up on cable,"
Price said. "They figure they have electricity, and thus they should have
cable."

Students ordering the expanded service will be provided with a converter to
receive and de-scramble the additional signals. However, service will be
limited to on campus housing as Continental only serves the Cambridge
area.

While Price said it will be possible for lounges and other public areas to
receive the additional services at an increased rate, he indicated that not
all premium stations would be available in such a forum because of
contractual agreements between Continental and the networks.

Winchester said that he would have to look into which premium services will
be available for such a public location and how this will affect service to
some on campus fraternities, which solely have wiring to public
locations.

Winchester has already begun seeing interest saying, "People are asking me
about it constantly," and some students have already begun contact
Continental asking when the services would be available.

Nearly 80 percent of undergraduates responding to a survey taken last
November by MIT Cable said that they would be interested in additional
cable services.

The planned packages, as described by Price, seem to meet much of the
student's demand for outside programming. In the November survey, CNN, CNN
Headline News, MTV, ESPN, and the Discovery Channel were the most preferred
channels, and all would be available under the expanded service.

The survey was just one part of the project of expanding MIT Cable's lineup
which has been an ongoing process for the past year with MIT Cable
replacing some of its amplifiers and testing equipment for quality.